Nicholas Rehm built a radio-controlled miniature replica of SpaceX’s Starship SN9, built to mimic the freefall/belly flop maneuver featured by SpaceX’s recent SN8 launch. Photo: Nicholas Rehm
In December, SpaceX’s Starship SN8 had a successful launch to test out a newly-developed flip maneuver, performing a controlled free fall and “belly flop,” landing nearly upright but ultimately exploding on impact.
On Monday, graduate student Nicholas Rehm shared a video on YouTube of his self-built RC Starship SN9 model, created to mimic SpaceX’s SN9, which is set to perform the next free fall and belly flop maneuvers.
The video is Rehm’s latest in a series trying to replicate the maneuver, with commentary on the process, its engineering challenges, and the current result, which makes for a pretty similar set of moves to the actual SN8.
Fashioned out of 3D printed hardware and a few specialized parts, Rehm, who is studying Aerospace Engineering at the University of Maryland, used electric motors for propulsion, with gimbals to steer the radio-controlled Starship SN9 replica.
“The full process from CAD model to first bellyflop probably took 2 weeks working 1-2 hours here and there. All the 3D printed parts came off the printer in a day and the full assembly slides together in a couple of hours,” explained Rehm to Tesla North.
“My hope was to put together a more scale version that didn’t have any of the compromises the other designs seemed to have. I’ve been model building for years now, so it’s always fun to find out where the intersection of looks and functionality lays,” added Rehm in an email.
He says some inspiration came from Tom Stanton’s version and also Daniel’s from rctestflight.
Already planning for the next development, Rehm even plans to build a futuristic arm to catch his 3D printed SN9 model, just like what Elon Musk says SpaceX plans to do in the future.
You can see videos for Rehm’s most recent flight tests below.
